Gender Budgeting Analysis

This paper attempts to examine some basic data on women in agriculture and analyses the state budgets of Maharashtra, for the period 1998 to 2002, for their impact on women. It finds that most policies in the plans and budgets of the agriculture and allied sectors do not create positive boosts for women workers, in terms of creating special opportunities, being gender sensitive, or ensuring equitable intra-household distribution of benefits. At the same time, there is no clear evidence of policies creating an adverse impact on women, possibly because negative effects might not yet be fully known or understood within the existing knowledge base.